Christmas is in the air, and decorations are springing up all over town. Some of the most beautiful decorations are the Christmas lights people string up on their homes and businesses.

We were excited to see the beautiful decorations in this year's Lighted Christmas Parade in downtown Victoria on Dec. 1. Floats celebrating themes from the "Night Before Christmas" to a boxing ring to symbolize a woman's fight against cancer filed down Main Street to be admired by at least 10,000 people.

We were glad to see so many people come out to enjoy this event and share the holiday spirit. Christmas is a time for people to spend time together and out in the community sharing joy and love. We were glad to see this community enjoy a Victoria tradition that we hope to see continue for years to come.

After the parade, however, was a disappointing scene. The beautiful, recently renovated streets of downtown Victoria were littered with discarded food, cups and various other pieces of trash. This was a sad, disappointing sight, and we encourage our readers to not let this happen again.

Victoria's downtown is a growing, important part of our city. It boasts some wonderful locally-owned restaurants and businesses as well as a beautiful square and new sidewalks. The city, as well as the Victoria Main Street program, has put in hours of work and thousands of dollars to revitalize the downtown area, and their efforts have seemed to pay off.

We expect there to be some cleanup after a large community event, but it was disappointing to see how much trash was left after the parade. After all of the time, money and effort that was spent to improve the quality of downtown, it is disappointing to see Victoria residents treating it with such disrespect. With all the improvements, Victoria's downtown has the potential to become a hub of activity, bringing in both tourists and residents. So we encourage Victoria residents to take pride in our city, as well as taking responsibility for their actions. It doesn't take much effort to walk a few steps to a trash can. Simply dumping trash on the ground is not just disrespectful. It's lazy.

Victoria is our home, and we need to take an active interest in keeping our hometown beautiful. So we encourage residents to treasure our city. If we all take a little more effort, Victoria will remain beautiful for visitors and our children to enjoy for years to come.

This editorial reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate's editorial board.